Legal News

Bambu, Maker of Rolling Papers, Sues to Blunt Obama Paraphernalia

By Dan Slater

In what will come as a major buzz kill to Love Fatigues, a New York-based clothing manufacturer of, among other things, Barack Obama t-shirts (an example of which is pictured below, right), Bambu, an iconic brand of rolling papers (pictured, left), is suing the company for trademark infringement.

The complaint begins:

Bambu, one of the World’s 1000 Oldest Companies, opened its doors in 1764. Since that time, Bambu has led the rolling paper industry in standard and style. Bambu and its products have been featured in various movies — most famously in the cult-classic Cheech and Chong and more recently in Totally Baked: A Pot-u-mentary — as well as in television, magazines and in the book Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life. . . .

The complaint essentially alleges that Love Fatigue’s Barack Obama-related designs rip off Bambu’s trademark. “Significantly,” the complaint goes on, “Defendants are facilitating consumer confusion by describing their shirts as ‘Obambu.’ . . . Moreover, Defendants’ unlawful conduct is likely to subject Bambu to criticism and scorn insofar as Defendants are depicting President-elect Barack Obama smoking marijuana, and such depiction is likely to confuse the consuming public into believing that the offensive advertising emanated from Bambu.”

Click here for the suit, which was filed yesterday in the Southern District of New York.

We caught up with Seamus McGovern, the owner of Love Fatigues. “[I]t’s absolutely not a copyright or trademark infringement,” said McGovern. “I’m an artist. I’ve done a lot of this kind of derivative artwork and I’ve never been denied a copyright.”

Bambu is repped by Pryor Cashman’s Brad Rose, Lisa Buckley and Nicole Kaplan.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).